


After All This Time

by telliefan (captainamergirl)



Category: One Life to Live
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 19:17:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6870124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/telliefan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After all this time, Jessica and Antonio still belong together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After All This Time

**After All This Time**  
  
She knows she shouldn't have come; that she wasn't ready for this but she figured she could force herself to stay another five minutes or so. She has sat through the wedding, through the beautiful vows, and the tears with tears of her own streaking her face. She has sat through half of the reception, the first couple's dance and marveled with everyone how happy the bride and groom look together. And it's true. They really, really do. She knows she couldn't have separated them, that they truly belonged together. And she belongs with...  
  
She belongs alone apparently.  
  
The DJ puts on a Latin salsa song and this time she smiles because she sees the groom's brother trying to teach his young daughter to tango. It's wonderful and she smiles for the first time in spite of the raw emotion gripping the base of her throat.  
  
He notices her staring and offers her a smile and a wave. She smiles and waves back.   
  
Later, she is preparing to go when she feels him approach her. "Leaving so soon?" He asks.  
  
She slowly turns around and looks at him with sheepish blue eyes. "Yeah, I have to get home to Bree."  
  
"Yeah, I bet. How is she doing?"  
  
"She's great. Getting so big."  
  
"Jamie is too. Growing like a weed," he says.  
  
"I noticed," she says with a laugh. "How are you both? Really?"  
  
He nods. "Doing good actually considering everything. It was hard coming back here for obvious reasons but ..."  
  
"I bet."   
  
"And you? How are you?"  
  
She demurs. "Oh fine. Just ... dealing with life ..."  
  
He nods."You can be straight with me. Cris mentioned something about Mitch being alive yet again..."   
  
She notices him clench his fists seemingly involuntarily at the mention of her monster father who had caused them so many damn problems.   
  
"Yeah, he is."  
  
"Is he leaving you alone?"  
  
"He is now," she answers. "I think one day he will die for good and then we can all live normally again."  
  
"God willing," he replies. "Look if you need to talk I'll be here until tomorrow night. I am sure Jamie would love to play with Bree anyway. Jamie doesn't have many friends yet in school."  
  
"Oh that's too bad but I am sure Bree will love it too."  
  
"So tomorrow then?"  
  
"Yeah I'll call you and set up a play date ... for our kids," she says with a blush.  
  
"Perfect."  
  
"Well, good night ..."  
  
"Night," he says and watches her go.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
The next day they meet in Angel's Square. Right away their daughters take to each other and run for the sandbox hand in hand.  
  
She smiles. "It's nice to see them having so much fun."  
  
"Yes it is."  
  
They fade into a companionable but pregnant silence and then he looks over at her. "So really, how're you doing?"  
  
"I'm fine ..."  
  
"C'mon, I know you a bit better than that."  
  
"Things have been ... interesting lately to say the least. I regressed to my teenage years and tried to steal Cristian from his beautiful bride; I may or may not have bludgeoned someone half to death; I found out my boyfriend and my twin sister had a tryst and are expecting a baby together ..."  
  
"Ay no quiero," he murmurs. "I don't like to hear you're miserable."  
  
"I don't like to be miserable but what about you? Last time we saw each other, you were dealing with a major loss. One I can't even imagine going through..."  
  
"Yes you can. You lost Nash, your husband."  
  
She nods. "Yes, but ..."  
  
"No buts. Your ache hurts just as much as mine if not worse. While it's true I didn't like Nash, I respect him for making you happy the way no one else could."  
  
"I loved - love Nash but you made me happy too. Very, very happy."  
  
He smiles and reaches for her hand. "It's weird huh? After all this time, we still get each other."  
  
She looks down at his hand and then squeezes his fingers. "We do. We always did even when we were at our worst."  
  
"I miss you. I'm not going to lie, I really do."  
  
"Me too. But I don't think we can go back now can we?"  
  
"No," he agrees. "I don't think so." He lets go of her hand and she feels the loss like he's severed her own limb.  
  
They spend the rest of the day playing with the kids and then agree to part ways. She feels tears run down her cheeks as they hug goodbye for what she is sure is the last time.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
She falls into bed that night with more tears in her eyes. All she does is cry and cry these days and she wants it to stop but she doesn't know how to do that.  
  
She is beginning to finally feel sleep take her when there are light scratching sounds at her window. She bolts upright in bed, sure someone is trying to get in but then she sees a pebble bounce against the windowpane and she moves over to it.  
  
She wrenches the window open and looks down to the ground where he is standing. "What are you doing here?" She asks.  
  
"I never got to throw pebbles at your window before," he said. "We never got to do lots of things that we should have. I know we can't go back but we can go forward right?"  
  
She nods. "You're right."  
  
She then hurriedly races out of the room and downstairs, throwing open the front door where she launches herself into his arms and they cry together kiss for what seems like hours.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Six months later as she dances in her husband's arms surrounded by her friends and family, she thinks she is glad she went to the other wedding because if she hadn't suffered through that, she never would have known this true happiness that she feels in her soulmate's arms.  
  
"I love you, Jess," he says, stroking her cheek as they dance around the reception hall.  
  
"I love you, Antonio, always," she says.  
  
FINIS


End file.
